Olive Colon

Olive Colon

Olive (Alev) Colon

Everyone—following are a couple of letters from Jan Wilcox, with the most recent announcing Olive’s death this morning, appearing first. I expect that there are still expenses related to her illness and her death, and she wished for donations to go to the Nalanda Translation Committee and Marpa Foundation in her memory and in her name. The best route for such donations would be here: GoFundMehttps://www.gofundme.com/28yff6k

Please read on. Best regards, Phil

**********June 13, 2016

Dear friends,

Olive has very peacefully and easily passed on. She died this morning (June 13, 2016) at about 5:30 Eastern time, 2:30 a.m. Arizona time. Please hold her in your hearts and minds and wish her well as she moves on her way to her next awakened state.

She requested that the well-known Khenpo Rinpoche song of All You Sentient Beings be sung. Here is a link to the words and tune being sung by a large group of students with Khenpo at Karme Choling, Olive in the front row of this group, singing away. Please join in.http://www.ktgrinpoche.org/songs/dedication-merit

She was very, very happy to get all the messages of love and re-connections with people in the last months and days of her life. All of our love and support pouring her way meant an enormous amount to her.

She was very happy we had set up this site to help raise money for her “two favorite groups” – after covering the rest of her dying costs. Here are her words from her introduction to her e-book of poetry:

“I have no money to leave to my two favorite dharma groups, so I offer my mind in this form, and hope that invoking the generosity principle raises enough money to help them continue and expand their dharma activities.”

So if you feel inspired, please continue to give whatever you can here and we will pass it on to them. If you would like her e-book of poetry you can make a note of that in your donation box and we will send it to you very soon. Or you can donate directly to groups by using the links at the bottom of this page/story.

What an amazing world that there was such a being as Olive and that we all had the great fortune to have crossed paths with her. May she continue to benefit all beings she meets on her way and we may all meet again.

jan

June 12, 2016

Dear sangha and friends of Olive,

Our dear friend, fellow devoted student and practitioner extraordinaire, Olive Colón is in her last days or weeks on this planet. She is dying of emphysema. She has been living and practicing in Tucson Arizona for the last number of years. She has been actively working long distance with a few of our favorite Tibetan translators helping them edit and finalize their works. We are using this Go Fund Me page https://www.gofundme.com/28yff6k to raise money to cover her final care-giving costs, household expenses and gather donations that she would like to see made to two small organizations that are close to her heart. Please give as much or as little as you can, or just send love.

Included at the end of my letter here is a wonderful personal communication from Olive describing her mind and hearts intent. Please enjoy.

Olive has had the help and friendship of various local sangha, as well as some other help of friends and care givers for quite a while. In the last week it became clear to her that she needed and wanted 24/7 live-in help. She requested Elizabeth (Callahan, her dear friend in upstate NY) and I to see if we could find some old, fellow Khenpo Rinpoche students to be with her during this last phase. For 14 years many of us studied and practiced together at Karme Choling with Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamsto every summer, forming a wonderful bond. Quite amazingly, in a day, I found three of these people who were happy to commit to being with Olive for a week at a time. Olive does not feel she will last through the end of this month. Steve Tibbetts will arrive tomorrow, Monday morning. Then he will be followed by Joanne Burgess and then by Lynele Jones. We have worked it out to have each of them overlap with the other for at least 1/2 day. Olive is thrilled to have them coming. I am sure that much singing – and maybe even some dancing – will take place! (At least by the yogi caretakers) Steve is taking his guitar.

Many of the people I have contacted in the last few days have offered financial help. This is great. We do need it. The need we have right now is money for covering all the travel costs of our traveling/flying care-givers. There will also be a few other costs that arise as the weeks go on and Olive’s dying unfolds.

Olive has requested that any left over money we raise be spilt equally as gifts to the Nalanda Translation Committee and Marpa Foundation (the foundation that was started and is run by Khenpo RInpoche students to care for his nunneries in Nepal and Bhutan and his various other projects). Both of these groups are very close to Olive’s heart. So we are hoping to raise more money than we need so we can give gifts in Olive’s name to these two groups.

Many, many people, upon hearing last week of Olive’s nearing departure, have been calling and emailing me (as the main liaison person) and expressing so much love and wonderful memories and stories. I have sent these all onto EIlzabeth who then reads them to Olive over the phone, when she is up for it. Olive has loved hearing them and reconnecting with people, even if through another person. She has told us that she can no longer reply – but “Please tell people that I love them and am thinking of them.”

When Steve gets there, on Monday morning, I will send any notes to him and he can communicate anything you like to Olive. So please feel free to send anything as simple as a note or as elaborate as a delightful storied memory. I will send it all on. My email is jan@janwilcox.com If you would like to be on my email list for Olive info please send me an email to that effect. I will include you.

I will try to use this site as a way to update people with any news. Please forward this link for our Go Fund Me project to anyone you think might be benefited by it.

Thank you all for your love of Olive and for making the love and caring of all of our meaningful connections so vivid and real.